Saudi authorities are targeting Ethiopian migrants, convicting them on drugs charges in unfair trials and sentencing them to death. CNN spoke to one man on death row and the families of two other prisoners at immediate risk of execution for this article.
At least 356 people were executed in Saudi Arabia last year. Of the 240 who had been convicted of drug crimes, 188 were foreigners. The New York Times, Guardian US and CNN all reported on a surge in executions of Egyptians in 2025.
Reprieve’s CEO Maya Foa told CNN: “These are not isolated cases. There is a clear pattern of Saudi authorities targeting vulnerable migrants. Often, their true ‘crime’ appears to have been crossing the border, in search of a better life.”
Taha al-Hajji, legal director of the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights, said: “Capital trials in Saudi Arabia routinely fail to meet even minimum guarantees of fairness. Defendants are denied legal representation and adequate interpretation, leading to migrants being convicted and sentenced to death without understanding the process – often on the basis of torture ‘confessions. This is not justice: it is state violence, inflicted on defenceless people.”
As part of the same story, two Reprieve staff members – Head of MENA Death Penalty Projects, Jeed Basyouni, and Saudi Arabia consultant Duaa Dhainy – were also interviewed by the BBC. Jeed was interviewed for a leading item for the BBC’s Focus on Africa radio programme, and Duaa gave an extensive interview for the BBC News Channel, both speaking to the unfair trials and lack of support the men experienced, as well as the daily fear they live in. Watch Duaa’s full interview below.
